Digital BW, The Print

Hello all

I have been printing BO with EPSON matte, 1440/2880dpi, on EPSON Archival Matte/Hahnemühle, with my EPSON 2100 (2200), mainly in formats smaller than A4, for years on end now. Very much to my liking! (I am an available light photographer and for photoesthetical reasons I like the fine "structure" produced by the fine dots in either 1440/2880dpi).

Question: Does anybody know of an A4 Printer that works with
1440/2880dpi and has an ink suitable for matte printing ("dye" would do as I prefer a good d-max to longevity.

Thanks!

chatzebussi

Hello all

I have been printing BO with EPSON matte, 1440/2880dpi, on EPSON Archival Matte/Hahnemühle, with my EPSON 2100 (2200), mainly in formats smaller than A4, for years on end now. Very much to my liking! (I am an available light photographer and for photoesthetical reasons I like the fine "structure" produced by the fine dots in either 1440/2880dpi).

Question: Does anybody know of a A4 Printer that works with
1440/2880dpi and has an ink suitable for matte printing ("dye" would do as I prefer a good d-max to longevity.

Thanks!

chatzebussi

The problem you may have is finding a printer that supports Black Only
printing.  Most of the drivers no longer do.

The printers I have that do seem to support black only are in the Epson
Workforce line.  The Workforce 30 is a small one that is quite affordable.
 These use DuraBrite ink, but third party carts are available.  I've used
MIS pigments and Noritsu dyes in them with good results.

Alternatively, QTR does support black only, but then you need to find a
printer with a 3.5 picoliter drop (or close) that is supported by QTR.  See
http://www.quadtonerip.com/html/QTRrequire.html for which printers QTR
supports.

Buying a new, larger Epson printer for this purpose seems like over kill.

Hope this helps.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com



On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 4:22 AM, chatzebussi <chatzebussi@...>wrote:

> **
>
>
> Hello all
>
> I have been printing BO with EPSON matte, 1440/2880dpi, on EPSON Archival
> Matte/Hahnemühle, with my EPSON 2100 (2200), mainly in formats smaller than
> A4, for years on end now. Very much to my liking! (I am an available light
> photographer and for photoesthetical reasons I like the fine "structure"
> produced by the fine dots in either 1440/2880dpi).
>
> Question: Does anybody know of an A4 Printer that works with
> 1440/2880dpi and has an ink suitable for matte printing ("dye" would do as
> I prefer a good d-max to longevity.
>
> Thanks!
>
> chatzebussi
>
>  
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Let me add a little more here.

I tried my 1100 black only, and it gave the "grainy" available light look you like to a certain extent, but there was also some microbanding on close inspection of the plain areas with no details to hide the artifact.

I, personally, find visible microbanding about the worst artifact, and would not want it in any of my prints.  Due to this being a common problem with black only printing, for the 1.5 pl 1800 I developed the "3 MK" approach.  I used 3 black inks to hide the microbanding.

The 1.5 pl printers (1800, 1900, 2000, 1400 and other Claria printers) may not have enough of the "grain" to meet your aesthetic requirements, but take a look at http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/R1800-Image-Structure.pdf to get some idea of the image structure.  I, personally, found the 3MK approach too grainy in the midtones for my tastes.  The approach tends to make surprisingly smooth highlights (very fine dots), but in the midtones the 3 black inks' noise is somewhat additive, resulting in graininess that may give you want you want -- and with no microbanding due to the 3 inks firing.

My old write up of the approach starts here: http://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/R1800.htm 

The approach requires QTR.  It also can be run on any 1.5 pl printer if it is supported by QTR and you can linearize profiles (only a flatbed scanner is needed).

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com